It’s undeniable that the human population has been growing fast. Over the span of the last 200 years, the global population has grown from 1 billion in 1800 to more than 7.7 billion in 2020 - an increase of a never-seen-before magnitude. And one important aspect of population growth’s effect on the world is our ever-increasing need for resources such as fresh water and food.
Globally, about 11% of the world’s population does not have enough food to sustain a healthy life as of 2019, and about 33% suffer from some sort of malnutrition. Today, we have enough food for every single person in the world, but many go malnourished due to poverty and unequal distribution. Our increasing population only serves to (and has served) to exacerbate this.
To feed the currently hungry and the additional 2-billion+ people that population growth predicts for 2050, crop production will need to increase somewhere between 60 to 100 % - this would require clearing about a billion hectares of land.
Additionally, increasing crop production would drastically expand our carbon footprint. Countries that currently have low crop production would clear out new land, expanding their agricultural production, while those that are high producers would instead intensity by growing more crops on existing land. In order to meet production needs for 2050, this approach would require:
A 2 gigaton increase in annual CO2 production is greater than the annual emissions from every form of transportation in America. It’s clear that this type of increase to our carbon footprint would be devastating to our environment - driving species to extinction, accelerating global warming, and much more.
This type of growth is unsustainable in both the long and short run, so what can we do about it?
Our current consumption of food is far from viable in the long run, and the statistics make this clear. An increase in food production alone will not be enough to feed our growing planet, so as a society, we must turn to different alternatives - paying attention to our diets, reducing food waste, and improving food security on a global scale. As individuals, this means consuming food before it spoils and eating healthier diets, and as a society, this means using more sustainable agricultural practices and improving distribution of food in the world.
This is by no means an easy task, but even the smallest actions taken by the individual are one step closer to a happier, fuller world.
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